In order to protect passengers on a driving seat and a passenger seat in the event of a vehicle collision or emergency, cars having an airbag device including an inflatable and deployable airbag, for example, in a steering wheel or an instrumental panel are in widespread use. Since the airbag cover covering the airbag of the airbag device is usually installed, for example, at a front face or a sidewall facing a passenger in the interior of a car, it comes under passenger's observation. Accordingly, the airbag cover requires an ornamental design or decoration in addition to the passenger protecting function. So, until now, a decorative member having a decorative pattern such as logo or car's name is attached to the airbag cover to improve appearance with the decoration.
The airbag cover having such a decorative member must tightly hold the decorative member such that the decorative member does not drop off even if the airbag device is activated. For this reason, an airbag device having a decorative member having legs extending through a cover body (an airbag cover) to the back face where the legs are engaged to retainers of a catching part for tight attachment to the cover body is known (see Patent Document 1).
In such a conventional airbag device, an annular decorative member has a plurality of legs along the circumferential direction. A ring catching part having retainers of the respective legs is disposed on the back face of the cover body. After the legs are inserted into the respective retainers, the catching part is rotated along the circumferential direction to engage the legs to the retainers. In the airbag device, since the catching part, which includes an area for a plurality of legs arranged at the decorative member, must be rotatable, the size and shape of the catching part are limited. Consequently, the shape of the catching part is limited to be annular or discal. In parallel, since the size of the catching part is relatively large corresponding to the arrangement and number of the legs, a space for the arrangement of the catching part and a space for the engagement work tend to be larger. In addition, since the plurality of legs extends along the circumferential direction, the shape of the decorative member is limited to a circular form such as a ring or a disk, which impairs the degree of freedom of the design.
In the conventional airbag device, since the decorative member is fixed to the cover body by rotating the catching part in one direction to engage the retainers to the legs, a rotative force against the catching part in the opposite direction may cause the decorative member to disengage the decorative member from the cover. Furthermore, in order to compressively clip the cover body by the decorative member and the catching part after the decorative member is attached, the catching part is forced to be rotated while the decorative member is strongly pressed against to the cover body during the attaching work, which may cause a surface of the decorative member or the back face of the cover body to be damaged. In addition, the catching part should be rotated by a strong force with a special jig while the decorative member is pressed during the attaching work, resulting in difficulty in attachment with low workability.
Citation List
Patent Document
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-11833